Montesquieu - People Quotes

10 Sourced Quotes

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Happy the people whose annals are blank in history-books!

Montesquieu
When the body of the people is possessed of the supreme power, it is called a democracy.

Montesquieu
It is not the young people that degenerate; they are not spoiled till those of maturer age are already sunk into corruption.

Montesquieu
Great lords have their pleasures, but the people have fun.

Montesquieu
If one only wished to be happy, this could be easily accomplished; but we wish to be happier than other people, and this is always difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are.

Montesquieu
Better it is to say that the government most comformable to nature is that which best agrees with the humor and disposition of the people in whose favor it is established.

Montesquieu
People here argue about religion interminably, but it appears that they are competing at the same time to see who can be the least devout.

Montesquieu
The history of commerce is that of the communication of the people.

Montesquieu
Thou knowest that ever since the invention of gunpowder…I continually tremble lest men should, in the end, uncover some secret which would provide a short way of abolishing mankind, of annihilating peoples and nations in their entirety.

Montesquieu
The crime against nature will never make any great progress in society unless people are prompted to it by some particular custom.

Montesquieu